The new Tory MP was appearing in front of parliament's joint committee on privacy and injunctions alongside Steve Coogan and Hugh Grant.

Responding to the argument that newspapers need celebrity coverage to survive as viable commercial projects, the Richmond Park MP said: "Nobody is saying Auschwitz should have been kept open; it created jobs."

The Times' Janice Turner tweeted: "Zac Goldsmith compares tabloids to Auschwitz. Tom Watson and Steve Coogan compared them to mafia. And it's newspapers who are sensationalist?"

Daily Mail political editor James Chapman tweeted: "Having visited Auschwitz last month, I find comparison with between death camps and errant newspapers by Zac Goldsmith deeply inappropriate.

Other said the comment was "a bit hyperbolic".

Later, Mr Goldsmith wrote on Twitter: "The point is valid, but I could/ should have made it citing something different."